From Empedocles to Wittgenstein

Historical Essays in Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

A collection of essays by one of the most respected living historians of philosophy

From Empedocles to Wittgenstein

Historical Essays in Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

Description

From Empedocles to Wittgenstein is a collection of fifteen historical essays in philosophy, written by Sir Anthony Kenny in the early years of the 21st century. In the main they are concerned with four of the great philosophers whom he most esteems, namely Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Wittgenstein. The author is not only one of the most respected historians of philosophy, and possibly the widest-ranging, but also one of the most successful at writing on the subject for a broad readership. In this volume he presents scholarly explorations of some themes which caught his interest as he worked on his acclaimed four-volume New History of Western Philosophy.

From Empedocles to Wittgenstein

Historical Essays in Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

Table of Contents

1. Seven Concepts of Creation2. Life after Etna: Empedocles in Prose and Poetry3. Virtue and the Good in Plato and Aristotle4. Aristotle's Criteria for Happiness5. Practical Truth in Aristotle6. Aristotle's Categories in the Latin Fathers7. Essence and Existence: Aquinas and Islamic Philosophy8. Aquinas on the Beginning of Individual Human Life9. Thomas and Thomism10. Aquinas in America11. "Philosophy states only what everyone admits"12. Cognitive Scientism13. The Wittgenstein Editions14. Knowledge, Belief, and Faith15. The Unity of Knowledge and the Diversity of BeliefAbbreviationsBibliography

From Empedocles to Wittgenstein

Historical Essays in Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

Author Information

Sir Anthony Kenny has been President of the British Academy and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He has written many acclaimed books on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy, including both scholarly and popular works on Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, and Wittgenstein.

From Empedocles to Wittgenstein

Historical Essays in Philosophy

Anthony Kenny

Reviews and Awards

"As the title declares, all have their source in issues in the history of philosophy. Together they document the most recent phase in the evolution of the thought of one of the most significant philosophers working today.... Those new to Kenny's thought will find that these papers offer an ideal first path into his comprehensive, careful, and clearheaded work. Those already familiar with his writings will be entertained and enlightened by these occasional pieces from the most recent phase of Kenny's distinguished career."--Owen Goldin, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews